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Rep. Keith Ellison Joins Chorus of Consumers With Prime Day Message for Amazon: No Platform for Racists

July 17, 2018 -- Heather Appel

For Immediate Release - July 17, 2018

On Prime Day, consumers are turning up the heat on Amazon and making it a day of action across the nation. The 30-hour online sale event is inspiring activists across the country to protest the mega retailer, which profits from hate groups that sell their merchandise on Amazon.com. The latest person to add his voice to the chorus of demands on the multi-billion dollar corporation is Rep. Keith Ellison.

In a letter to Jeff Bezos, Rep. Ellison wrote, “Amazon’s practice of hosting the sale of hateful literature, toys, and music spreads and normalizes hate ideologies. Either Amazon finds this practice acceptable or Amazon’s sheer size makes it impossible for the company to police itself. In either event, I am disturbed that such a powerful corporation is materially fueling the rise of hate groups in our country.”

***Click here for a recent report by the Action Center on Race and the Economy and the Partnership for Working Families.***

Starting July 16 in the DC area and continuing throughout July 17 in Atlanta, New York City, San Jose, and other cities, activists organized protests at Whole Foods locations, Amazon Bookstores, and Amazon-focused events to call out the company’s failure to enforce policies barring racist hate groups from selling on its platforms. A petition to Bezos and the Amazon Board of Directors that was launched July 6 has already garnered more than 40,000 signatures.

On Prime Day of Action, consumers will also take to social media using the hashtag #primedayofaction and #amazondelivershate to protest Amazon’s profiting from the selling of Nazi, confederate and white nationalist propaganda. Community organizations are also demanding that Amazon stop contracting with ICE.

White supremacist movements are growing, and racist violence is on the rise. People are demanding action to oppose these movements, not just from politicians but also businesses. The goal of #PrimeDayofAction is to raise awareness about the harmful practices of the nation’s largest online retailer and to ask: is there anything Amazon won’t do for a dollar?

With renewed speculation about which city Amazon will choose for its second headquarters (HQ2), people are paying close attention to the company’s actions and what kind of neighbor it it is.